2 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
odour mingle their loveliness with the stuartia’s 
snowy purity, the majestic form of the magnolia, 
or richly scented clustering orange, irradiating 
with golden light the dark verdure of gardens 
and groves. 
Birds of splendid plumage and graceful flight 
congregate in multitudes, telling their aerial pas- 
sage by the wondrous melody of their song. 
Tempting fruits and berries, ripened by genial 
warmth and brushed by gentlest breeze—all 
these are elements of many a sunny scene, which 
breaks like a gladdening land of promise on the 
gaze of a loiterer, midst the western woods. 
Alternating with the pathless intricacies of the 
wilderness are vast untrodden prairies. Over 
these some hermit wanderer might roam, follow 
ing only the track of the Indian, undisturbed 
for miles by human sight or sound, greeted now 
and then but by the buzzing wings of the beetle 
—a prey for the night hawk, whose skimming 
undulations are seen around, or by the more 
unwelcome howling of distant wolves. 
To those delighting in the freedom of the 
waters, how inviting the waves of the imperial 
Mississippi and Ohio! Pursuing the gracefully 
winding course of these rivers, from which ver- 
durous islands rise, glistening in the light, like 
emeralds gemming a breeat of snow, some Cru- 
soe minded mariner too, might contentedly once 
